Tennis-Clijsters cruises into Doha final

Sat, 30 Oct 17:39:00 2010

Kim Clijsters took time to settle
after a "scary" car crash on the way to her WTA Championships
semi-final against Sam Stosur on Saturday but there was no
stopping the Belgian when she clicked into top gear.

The 27-year-old U.S. Open champion beat Australian Stosur
7-6 6-1 to reach the final of the $4.55 million season-ending
tournament in the Qatari capital, where she will face either
Caroline Wozniacki or Vera Zvonareva.

World number one Wozniacki and number two Zvonareva play in
the day's other semi-final.

"Samantha and I have had some really tough matches against
one other throughout our whole careers so I knew that I had to
be ready to come out here and try and play my best," Clijsters
said in a courtside interview.

"I played well at the important points and I think that's
why I won the first set and then in the second set I felt maybe
she dropped her game a little bit.

"I had an early chance to break, and I did, and that gave me
a little bit more confidence to just try to serve it out every
time."

Clijsters, who said on her Twitter site that she was "very
lucky" to escape unhurt from the crash, lost the opening three
games of the first set and had to fight off a set point before
eventually taking it in a tiebreak.

Stosur has enjoyed a breakthrough singles season, reaching
the final of the French Open and rising to a career-high fifth
in the world earlier this year, but the 26-year-old Brisbane
native found Clijsters too hot to handle.

Producing some of her best tennis of the tournament,
Clijsters raced to a 3-0 lead in the second set as Stosur wilted
in the face of the Belgian's searing serve and consistent
groundstrokes.

Clijsters broke to go 5-1 up with a sumptuous backhand down
the line and she put the same weapon to good use in the final
game, bludgeoning Stosur into the corners before sealing victory
in a 26-minute second set.